Viz Launches Massive Manga Catalog on Apple’s iBooks Store

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Good news for those of you out there who want to scratch their manga itch without getting adult-onset scoliosis from lugging around scores of weighty tomes of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. The manga publisher is bringing 1,600 volumes across 130 different series to Apple’s iBooks Store, making a staggering amount of manga available on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or other iOS-enabled device.

From the press release:

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, has announced the debut today of its entire digital manga (graphic novel) catalog on the iBooks Store.

Readers can enjoy over 1,600 manga volumes, across more than 130 top-rated VIZ Media series, including continuing favorites such as NARUTO (rated ‘T’ for Teens), BLEACH (rated ‘T’ for Teens), BAKUMAN (rated ‘T’ for Teens) and ONE PIECE (rated ‘T’ for Teens), as well as recent bestsellers such as DEMON LOVE SPELL (rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens) and NISEKOI (rated ‘T’ for Teens). Readers may instantly access all titles, as well as free previews for each, on iBooks on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and Mac.

“The availability of this deep library of manga titles on the iBooks Store brings some of the genre’s most popular and acclaimed series to legions of new and existing fans across North America with the reliability and convenience Apple’s platform is renowned for,” says Gagan Singh, EVP and CTO, VIZ Media. “With one of the largest and most diverse English language manga catalogs available anywhere, VIZ Media remains fully committed to the proliferation of high quality digital manga content, and we look forward to nurturing and continually expanding this robust catalog.”

Individual volumes (presented in English, with right-to-left reading format) are generally available for purchase in the U.S. and Canada for $6.99 (U.S. / CAN) each. New series as well as the latest additions to numerous ongoing titles will be added each week.

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And in case that wasn’t enough good news for one day, Viz is also bringing the dark, sci-fi anime series Zetman to Blu-ray in all of its uncut glory on November 5th, so you can celebrate Guy Fawkes Day with something other than those insufferable masks for a change.

Do you prefer to read manga digitally or with a hard copy? Let us know in the comments below!

I still read hard copies, and probably won’t be getting them digitally. Mostly, because I’m a collector at heart. But, this is great news when it comes to those ‘hard to find / really expensive’ volumes that are out of print.
There’s not much worse (in manga) than getting into a series, then finding out that this 1 particular volume costs anywhere from $40-80. Probably some a$$#ole that bought up every copy they could, just with the intent to re-sell all those copies at the hiked up price they choose.
Sorry, what was the topic? Oh yeah, this will doubtless be a good thing for all those younger readers who ‘live & breathe’ through their digital devices.
It just seems like it’s going to almost do away with things they could have passed on to their kids someday. Not to mention those things that nerds still to this day pay top dollar for, like first edition mint prints. Oh well, as long as they don’t totally stop printing volumes I’ll be okay with it.